HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS...... Finally the answer!

[kevbone]

 

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

 

 

This would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

 

We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American heroes

 

 

**********************************

 

Congressional Reform Act of 2010

 

1. Term Limits.

12 years only, one of the possible options below..

 

A. Two Six-year Senate terms

B. Six Two-year House terms

C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

 

 

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

 

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

 

 

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

 

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

 

 

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

 

 

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

 

 

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

 

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

 

 

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

 

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

 

 

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ivan]

mexico has strict term limits for all gov officials - doesn't seem to make their system any cooler or less corrupt, eh?

 

nullifying past contracts probably wouldn't get too far in court

[ivan]

good read on the subject here: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/04/weekinreview/the-world-do-term-limits-work-ask-mexico.html

[kevbone]

Ivan....your thoughts on making the congress have the same health care as the rest of us?

[ivan]

Ivan....your thoughts on making the congress have the same health care as the rest of us?

i'm for universal healthcare, so yeah, that part works for me.

[eldiente]

One thing about pay raises.... There is a good argument for paying elected officials more money, especially at the State level. These jokers are over-seeing billions and billions of dollars, making life or death discussions and get paid 174k per year. That's good money, but compare this to the kind of cash these people could be making in the private sector. Given the sort of responsibility were talking about, members of Congress ought to be the highest paid job in the land. Under the current system, the only way for a member of Congress to make a buck is to sell his/her influence to the highest bidder.

 

Soo my proposal would be this. Higher pay, a lot higher pay for members of Congress. Strict term limits, campaign reform to get the private money out of it and after leaving Congress you have to wait XX numbers of years before taking any job in the private sector, no book deals no consulting no nothing. The tax payers fund your retirement. This would be sort of like the private sector and a non-compete contract that many of us work under, you worked for the Fed, now you can't compete against it for a few years after the fact.

 

The end goal here is to make Congress a serious job that someone would want to aspire to as and end in itself. I want my elected officials to be smart and effective,unfortunately with our current system, anyone with brains is going to take up a job managing a trader joes store (you know those guys can make up to a 100k a year?)

 

 

 

 

 

[tvashtarkatena]

Term limits: "Stop me before I vote for who I want again!"

 

Yeah, I want to be represented by a Noob, rather than a savvy legislator who knows everybody - and being an effective politician is all about the relationships.

 

I don't favor anything that reduces my choices as a voter.

[sobo]

Term limits: "Stop me before I vote for who I want again!"

 

Yeah, I want to be represented by a Noob, rather than a savvy legislator who knows everybody - and being an effective politician is all about the relationships.

 

I don't favor anything that reduces my choices as a voter.

I'm with TTK on this one. We already have term limits, Kev. They're called elections.

 

When a sufficient percentage of the electorate becomes dissatisfied with an incumbent's performance, the incumbent is peacefully removed through the election process. Ergo, their term is limited. Pretty good system actually, especially when you take a look at regimes in South America (Chavez, Pinochet, etc.), Southeast Asia (Pol Pot, etc.), Africa (Idi Amin), etc. in modern times...

[Recycled]

It's obvious, but I suppose it's worth pointing out that the less experienced the legislator, the more power that staff, political parties and various outside interests will have to help "guide" the inexperienced figurehead. That is not necessarily a good thing...

 

[sobo]

It's obvious, but I suppose it's worth pointing out that the less experienced the legislator, the more power that staff, political parties and various outside interests will have to help "guide" the inexperienced figurehead. That is not necessarily a good thing...

Very true. It goes along with TTK's post above.

[ivan]

It's obvious, but I suppose it's worth pointing out that the less experienced the legislator, the more power that staff, political parties and various outside interests will have to help "guide" the inexperienced figurehead. That is not necessarily a good thing...

that's is what the mexican situation appears to validate

 

wonder how the numbers work out for eldiente's plan? the revolving door thing for politicians is epic bullshit for certain, i can't believe that crap is legal.

[Crux]

Great. Term limits to ensure legislators get enough experience to get high-paying jobs as lobbyists when they leave office, but not enough experience to really be good at writing laws. But then, the lobbyists, working for transnationals, can do that for us... the transnationals.

 

As far as law enforcement goes, I'm all for it. The Obama administration's failure to do this, against criminals like Karl Rove and other members of the former Bush Crime Family, now appears to be manifested by an increase in the scope of lawlessness. By being nice-guy to criminals, Obama now sees the criminals eating his lunch. Ooops!

 

Now, charging the IRS to dismantle the phony non-profits through which foreign companies are now pumping $millions into our elections system, sure, let them have at it. But I think the crimes alluded to now breach the RICO boundaries of lawlessness, and therefore the FBI is the optimal law enforcement entity in this case, as it is better armed and prepared for apprehending bad guys in the international theater.

Edited October 13, 2010 by Crux

[kevbone]

 

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

 

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

 

 

This is the part that I like the most.

[whirlwind]

One thing about pay raises.... There is a good argument for paying elected officials more money, especially at the State level. These jokers are over-seeing billions and billions of dollars, making life or death discussions and get paid 174k per year. That's good money, but compare this to the kind of cash these people could be making in the private sector. Given the sort of responsibility were talking about, members of Congress ought to be the highest paid job in the land. Under the current system, the only way for a member of Congress to make a buck is to sell his/her influence to the highest bidder.

 

Soo my proposal would be this. Higher pay, a lot higher pay for members of Congress. Strict term limits, campaign reform to get the private money out of it and after leaving Congress you have to wait XX numbers of years before taking any job in the private sector, no book deals no consulting no nothing. The tax payers fund your retirement. This would be sort of like the private sector and a non-compete contract that many of us work under, you worked for the Fed, now you can't compete against it for a few years after the fact.

 

The end goal here is to make Congress a serious job that someone would want to aspire to as and end in itself. I want my elected officials to be smart and effective,unfortunately with our current system, anyone with brains is going to take up a job managing a trader joes store (you know those guys can make up to a 100k a year?)

 

 

 

 

 

Your joking right... those most of the ass-hats in office don't deserve a dime.. ever read a ballot, in Washington only 3 that are running out of 7 for higher state rep positions have a college degree. only one has a masters, one has a degree not worth wiping yuor ass with and the other is running as a independant. out of the other 4, 2 failed out (of CC) or didnt even attend Community college.

what a joke more money.. if those assmonger fuck tards wern't allowed to make more then the avg of the people they represent, then maybe they would give a fuck about how the rest of us are doing. they should get free housing, transportation, and no more then the avg wage of there constituents. and lobbing for anything should be illegal, in terms of financial contributions. no business should have there needs meet before the best interest of the people, just because they have fat pockets.

[Buckaroo]

I was thinking like a nuclear cruise missile or one of those MOAB's

[kevbone]

 

Your joking right... those most of the ass-hats in office don't deserve a dime.. ever read a ballot, in Washington only 3 that are running out of 7 for higher state rep positions have a college degree. only one has a masters, one has a degree not worth wiping yuor ass with and the other is running as a independant. out of the other 4, 2 failed out (of CC) or didnt even attend Community college.

what a joke more money.. if those assmonger fuck tards wern't allowed to make more then the avg of the people they represent, then maybe they would give a fuck about how the rest of us are doing. they should get free housing, transportation, and no more then the avg wage of there constituents. and lobbing for anything should be illegal, in terms of financial contributions. no business should have there needs meet before the best interest of the people, just because they have fat pockets.

 

Well said. :tup:

[Fairweather]

Your joking right... those most of the ass-hats in office don't deserve a dime.. ever read a ballot, in Washington only 3 that are running out of 7 for higher state rep positions have a college degree. only one has a masters, one has a degree not worth wiping yuor ass with and the other is running as a independant. out of the other 4, 2 failed out (of CC) or didnt even attend Community college.

 

WitCh coLedgE diD yEw attinD?

 

 

[bstach]

This is how you fix congress:

[video:youtube]

[whirlwind]

I are a good speller, and typer

[whirlwind]

ok maybe not.

[Stonehead]

Just Congress?? What about the Executive Branch?

 

[video:youtube]v=bLpNSvpMoZQ

[mark1980]

Just Congress?? What about the Executive Branch?

 

[video:youtube]v=bLpNSvpMoZQ

 

That's perfect, Sparks tells it like it is

[eldiente]

I would agree that the current crop of Congress does not deserve a raise, some of them deserve to be in jail.

 

Think about it this way. Your a smart person, got your PHD life is looking up. You're trying to figure what to do with your life. On one hand, you can run for a public office, let's say the Oregon House of Representatives. Sweet, that's a respectable job that that pays $21,600 per year. Or you can go work in the private sector designing widgets for 200k a year. No joke, there's no way in hell anyone with marketable skills is going to run for office with that kind of pay. Only trust fund babies without jobs can afford to run for office.

 

Or look at myself, if I got elected to the House I'd have to quit my current job to attend votes in Salem. I would literally starve to death on that salary and have to take bribes from Big Oil to put gas in my car. I don't think paying reps more is going to fix everything, but at least make it a job that an honest person would want to take.

 

-Nate

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2010 by eldiente